6 posts from June 23, 2014

June 23, 2014

For the first time, David Rivera is running for Congress without holding a political office.

So what has the former U.S. House of Representatives member been doing for the past two years to pay the bills?

"Business development," the Miami Republican said Monday night.

What that means, exactly, will for now have to remain a mystery. Rivera repeatedly refused to elaborate on his profession, saying only that he will eventually file his required financial disclosures with the House. He would not name any clients or businesses that have paid him.

"That'll all come out in the financial disclosures," Rivera told a Miami Herald reporter. "They will speak for themselves." [See the transcript of the interview below.]

Earlier this month, a Florida administrative law found that, as a state representative, Rivera violated three ethics laws, included one every year between 2005 and 2009, when he failed to properly report his income. Rivera claimed in those financial disclosures that he worked as a contractor for the U.S. Agency of International Development.

USAID had no record of ever hiring him. After the Herald asked about the discrepancy in 2010, Rivera amended the financial disclosures to delete any USAID references.

The first debate among most of the Republican candidates running in Florida's 26th Congressional District will be held Monday night, with the likely absence of ex-Congressman David Rivera.

Miami-Dade School Board member Carlos Curbelo, Cutler Bay Mayor Ed MacDougall, former Miami-Dade Commission Chairman Joe Martinez and attorney Lorenzo Palomares-Starbuck are expected to attend the forum, hosted by the Women's Republican Club of Miami, Federated.

National Democrats are using the event as a way to attack Curbelo and Rivera. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said Monday that it's adding the two men to its "House of Scandal" website criticizing GOP members of Congress.

Rivera's scandals are well-known. He's under federal investigation in a campaign-finance investigation stemming from a ringer candidate in the 2012 Democratic congressional primary. Most recently, a Florida administrative judge ruled Rivera broke ethics laws while in the state Legislature.

By comparison, the accusations the DCCC levels against Curbelo -- chief among them that he voted for school district contracts that benefited political donors -- appear less scandalous.

But expect scandal to be a buzzword in this campaign -- including against the Democratic incumbent, Rep. Joe Garcia. Garcia's former chief of staff, Jeffrey Garcia, no relation, served time in jail for orchestrating a 2012 scheme to unlawfully submit online absentee ballot requests.

"Apparently, [House Minority Leader Nancy] Pelosi's attack dogs at the DCCC have yet to meet Joe Garcia or they would know that not only is Garcia under two FBI investigations, but his former chief of staff just got done doing jail time over his absentee ballot fraud scandal," Katie Prill, spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said in a statement. "If Garcia wasn't so corrupt we would actually feel sorry for him seeing these are the political 'geniuses' tasked with getting him re-elected and keeping him out of jail."

Curbelo also sent a response of his own, via text message, with the hyperbole that can be expected in these attack-counterattack situations: "I appreciate the DCCC making this election about ethics, considering that Joe Garcia is one of the most corrupt politicians serving in Congress."

A former employee of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity who uncovered "systemic" fraud within the agency has won a whistleblower lawsuit against the state, her attorney said Monday.

The whistleblower, 30-year state employee Dianne Parcell, discovered 97 instances in which the agency had inappropriately reported Floridians to collection agencies for alleged unemployment overpayments. Parcell reported the findings to her supervisors and the governor's office, but was told to drop her investigation, she said.

Parcell submitted a whistleblower letter in August 2012, she said. She was placed on administrative leave the following day and later fired.

A subsequent investigation revealed that as many as 19,000 Floridians had been wrongly reported to collections agencies, attorney Keisha Rice said.

"These improper referrals can severely and adversely affect someone's credit rating, making it more difficult to buy a house or a car," Rice said.

Rice said one woman who had been improperly reported had already demanded $100,000 from the state. She estimated that the overall liability to the state could be as much as $1.9 billion.

Parcel won her case in Leon County Circuit Court on April 3. A jury awarded her more than $50,000 in damages.

Parcell said she was bringing the case to the media not to affect the upcoming governor's race, but because the 19,000 cases had not yet been resolved.

"I don't have a vendetta against Rick Scott," she said. "I'm a Republican."

In a statement, Department of Economic Opportunity spokeswoman Jennifer Diaz called Parcell's claims "meritless" and said Parcell's Monday morning press conference was "coordinated by a political campaign."

The news conference was organized by Kevin Cate, who consults for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist.

But Cate said the event was not related to the Crist campaign.

"I work for a number of law firms and [Rice's law firm] is one of them," he said.

Charlie Crist will not visit Cuba this summer as planned, his campaign said in a statement Monday.

"Despite his stark disagreements with the government in Cuba, the governor continues to believe the embargo hasn't worked for the Cuban people and is bad for Florida's economy," said Brendan Gilfillan, Crist campaign spokesperson. "If at some point after the election there is an opportunity to travel there to learn from the people of Cuba and help find opportunities for Florida businesses the governor will go."

In May, the former Florida governor and current Democratic candidate for governor, announced plans to visit Cuba in July to learn more as he calls for normalizing relations with the island 90 miles south of Key West.

But Crist spokesman Kevin Cate said the Cuba trip had never been finalized and Crist was only "exploring the opportunity."

"He has decided it would be best after the election," Cate said Monday. "He needs to focus on defeating Rick Scott."

In this ultraconservative city on the western edge of the Florida Panhandle, the Democratic candidate for governor is more than 650 miles from her base of support in left-leaning Broward County.

Any farther and she would be in Alabama.

Rich is keenly aware of the distance as she settles in for a meet and greet at a trendy restaurant that serves both sushi and Southern comfort food. Winning votes here is a long shot. But so is winning the governor’s mansion.

Rich, a former state senator from Weston, is the decided underdog in the Aug. 26 Democratic primary. Her opponent, former Gov. Charlie Crist, is better known and better financed, and widely expected to face sitting Gov. Rick Scott in the general election.

Still, Rich has spent more than two years crisscrossing the state, hammering on her talking points: More money for public schools. An increase in the minimum wage. Healthcare for all.

Her campaign workers say she has traveled more than 160,000 miles and attended more than 325 campaign events.

"Look at what happened with Eric Cantor," Rich said last week, recalling the U.S. House majority leader from Virginia who shockingly lost this month’s primary election to a little-known economics professor. "That's the power of grassroots organizing."

Despite her best efforts, the spotlight has remained on Crist, a one-term Republican governor who ran a failed bid for U.S. Senate in 2010 and became a Democrat in 2012.

In the showdown between the taxicab industry and upstart car services, there are no Davids — just Goliaths.

Burgeoning ride-for-hire companies led by Uber, whose worth has been estimated at $17 billion, have the deeper pockets. But established taxicab owners, with their decades-long foothold in the community, have a stronger grip on local politics.

And not just in Miami-Dade County.

Government regulators across the country and in Europe are struggling with how to control the digital-dispatch services that have upended the transportation business. Massive cab protests in Paris, Madrid and Berlin two weeks ago paralyzedtraffic.

But some places have found a way for the competing giants to coexist. And therein may lie lessons for Miami-Dade.

The county has issued at least 36 fines and impounded at least seven cars belonging to drivers of Lyft and UberX, the rivals that began offering rides last month in violation of local regulations.

The companies, which don’t hire chauffeurs or own vehicles, allow users to summon rides from freelance drivers using smartphone applications. They say that exempts them from taxicab and limousine rules.